Gryphons headed to the Glaxo

RALEIGH - Forty years ago, Rocky Mount's boys basketball team was among the first four teams to play in the first GlaxoSmithKline Invitational Basketball Tournament - then called the Holiday Invitational Tournament.

Tournament officials of perhaps the nation's premier prep holiday hoops event are not only expanding the field in its 2011 edition this winter, they are inviting all the teams that played in the inaugural tournament.

The Gryphons, who last played in the tournament in 2008 (RMHS went 1-2, but star forward Tashawn Mabry was named to its All-Tournament team), will play in a special four-team bracket involving them and the other original squads Raleigh Broughton, Kinston and Garner. The boys' field has now expanded to 20 teams. There will be three four-team brackets and one eight-team bracket.

The tournament will begin on Dec. 27 at Broughton's Holliday Gym.

Tournament officials are also working on bringing back all the players that participated on those four teams in 1972 at the Raleigh Civic Center. Brackets for this December's event have yet to be released.

As a result, the Rocky Mount's boys, for a second time, will likely not be playing in the annual Nash County Christmas Tournament.